The Twin Cities beat out Cleveland, New York City and Tampa-St.
Petersburg in Florida for the right to host the weeklong convention, scheduled to take place Sept. 1-4, 2008.

Democrats have not yet announced the host city for their presidential nominating convention, which will be held the week before, Aug. 25-28.

Minneapolis-St. Paul, New York City, and Denver were bidding for the Democrats' convention. That list has now been narrowed to New York and Denver.

The first and only time a GOP convention was held in Minneapolis-St. Paul was in 1892, when Republicans re-nominated President Benjamin Harrison for a second term. He lost that year to Grover Cleveland. The Democrats have never held their convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul.